Kazakh plane crash leaves all 27 passengers dead

Baku, AZERBAIJAN: Wreckage of a plane crash that killed all 23 people who aboard a plane that crashed in Azerbaijan, December 2005. The Antonov An-140, crashed shortly after taking off from the capital Baku, across the Caspian Sea in Kazakhstan. It went down with 18 passengers and five crewmembers aboard, a source in the state air company AZAL, which operated the flight, said.

A plane crash in Kazakhstan Tuesday has left all 27 passengers dead.

“The aircraft was completely burned, only fragments remain," head of the local Emergencies Department Valikhan Derezhepov said in an official statement, according to RT News.

The military transport plane was carrying 20 soldiers and seven crew members when it fell from 2,600 feet around 7 p.m. local time, the Telegraph reported.

Among the dead is Turganbek Stambekov, the acting head of the Border Protection Department of Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee (KNB), BBC News reported. He was appointed to his position in June 2012.

The crash happened just about 12 miles away from the city of Shymkent near the Uzbekistan border. The plane was making a descent into Shymkent, the capital of the South Kazakhstan region, according to Reuters.

No details were given about the cause of the crash, but the weather was reportedly very bad around the airport at the time of the plane's downing, and Southern Kazakhstan has been hit with plunging temperatures, as well as winds and heavy heavy snowfall in recent weeks, NBC News reported.

Authorities said a full investigation was being launched into the fatal crash.